By far the most exciting thing about completing a painting is the feedback I hear from people who share memories or any feeling the paining has evoked. These two paintings from the Coventry collection have received the most lovely and personal feedback over the last few months, some of the memories shared are so special and individual, it really does make a huge difference.
Creating a drawing or painting of an image is a really special way of attaching a memory to a place and a place to memory. As the artist you will look more closely at a scene if you have to draw it and start to take into account the small tiny elements that you may have ignored otherwise. If you really want a particular place to lodge in your memory, consider sketching it, just having a few minutes put aside to log the most crucial elements of a scene, maybe make a few notes. These paintings have taken much longer than a few minutes, but there are times when I use my sketchbook alongside my camera to capture scenes and the feelings associated in that place at that time.
A few years ago I was incredibly fortunate to be offered a place on a school trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau through the Holocaust Educational Trust. I decided to take a sketchbook with me, small enough to fit into a pocket and a few pens. Every mark that was made in that small sketchbook was made whilst listening to the voice of a Holocaust survivor who toured us around this desolate, hopeless place. Below there is a Tumblr link I shared following the visit with images of the sketches taken during this very special and memorable visit. You can see how fast some of the mark making was, sometimes walking as I sketched, looked and listened.
Sketching really helps, carrying a small sketchbook and pen with you is a great way to start helping you to look closer at the spaces we are surrounded with each day. Also amazing for wellbeing. I can guarantee that when you look back at the image, in days, weeks and years to come, you will instantly be back in that creative moment.
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